IRIA: Silent Sonata
by Break Orbit Studios
Summary: A new threat has lurked in the shadows for far too long. One year removed from conquering her greatest challenge, Hunter Iria's her adventures, and her curse, continue in a epic story of growth, redemption and trust. A complete re-imagining of the original fan fiction on set in the IRIA universe. *UPDATED 5/17/20*
1. Prologue: Sotto

**IRIA: Silent Sonata**

**An "IRIA: Zeiram the Animation" Fan Fiction**

Based on the story and characters of Tetsurō Amino and Keita Amemiya

_**Prologue**__**:**_ __Sotto __

This was no place to carry out a contract…

The sky was dark as the night had rolled over the barren land beneath it. Wedged between them lay a thick, heavy sheet of gray clouds that groaned and swirled against the force of the violent winds that attacked both the sky and the earth. The churning gusts of raging air chipped and tore at the top layers of the dry soil that stretched endlessly across the planet's desolate surface. The few scattered patches of musty fog that accumulated over shallow bodies of mud that dotted the region were just as quickly swallowed up in the ferocious gale. The same engulfing blasts mauled the few sickly trees that sprouted from the surface but had long since rotten to slender, horrid figures that swayed and plagued upon the dark horizon. This was a desolate place, a musk of death had long since fallen on to this hopeless rock; an odd juxtaposition of something so disruptive and turbulent, yet so dead and static all the same.

From the distance grew a shallow light through the thick, whirling atmosphere. What began as a minuscule glimmer on the dark, massive expanse increased to a lucent glow. As the glare bloomed into a monstrous blaze, the glowing orb of light seemed to split itself in two; dual beams of focused light pierced dark fog that swung to and fro between the silhouette of finger-like trees. Soft footsteps accompanied the floating rods of light as they became more and more centered as they stamped and trudged over the dead twigs and moss the winds had not yet managed to claim. With each step, there was a brief metallic clatter; the soft billowing of inorganic fabric and materials against the current. One of the lights appeared to be a few steps ahead of the other, its beam slowly scanning the area thoroughly. It playfully bobbed up and down with each louder step before suddenly settling on one spot off in the distance. The farther glow seemed to follow the lead of the other, though was more focused on the ground ahead rather than in observation of the surroundings. As the first slowed, its peer also ended its pursuit. The further light slowly crept upwards from the earth and shined brilliantly onto the source of the other beam, partially silhouetting a stocky human figure that seemed to be draped in some sort of coat or cloak that violently and erratically slapped about among the blustery tempest.

" Well, anything...?" the voice of a raspy yet upbeat middle-aged man called out through the darkness towards the source of the other beam. The man briefly swung his own light over to the direction that his voice carried. If only for a brief moment, the cascade of light revealed a fit and armored second male figure, slimmer in build and with a crop of thick hair that danced wildly on the brutal winds.

With a soft clicking noise muffled by the loud cries of the wind, a small, green circular object suddenly glowed to life near the top of the second figure. With a soft mechanical hum, the luminous gadget slowly shifted downward a few centimeters and came to rest over the man's eye as if it were a lens. The eye hidden underneath the orbicular basked in the faint veridian glow; young, dark and somewhat cold as it peered through the lens. Small and minute digital readings reflected off the lens' surface as the eye slowly turned to scan the barren landscape the two inhabited.

"...there are no readings," the younger man answered, his tone of voice reflective of that of his eyes: frigid and glaring. "There's nothing here..." the young voice added softly, though his hollow tone, bereft of much emotion, managed to carry over the wind that whipped at their ears. With another clicking sound, the green lens moved to its original position and faded back into the darkness.

The older man signed to himself softly, his beam of light moved over a few more of the dead trees positioned ahead of the pair before it dejectedly fell to his side and pointed directly into the dusty soil at his feet.

"Well, that figures," the man's voice grew louder and more disappointed. "Let's set up camp somewhere 'round here," he shouted back to the younger figure as he brought up his light once again to reexamine their environment. "I got a feeling this storm can't keep this pace up for much longer!"

"We should go back to the Kreper," the younger figure responded with a slight sternness to his tone.… and perhaps a hint of defiance as he narrowly raised his voice.

"Nah, you should know better than that, kid," the older man scoffed as his silhouette brought an arm to the front of his chest. The figure appeared to struggle against the wind with the sleeve of the outermost garment he wore. "We follow out our contract. That's what we do!" the experienced voice added with a shout. A small, bright red haze suddenly erupted from the man's forearm, the flood of light illuminating a well worn armored plate that encased its source.

"Besides," the husky voice added in a hushed, matter-of-fact tone, "we've hiked nearly 10 klicks from the Kreper." He switched the glowing panel off and let his arm fall back to his side. The illuminated contour of his rigid frame slowly turned to face the other being. "If you want to walk back through that shit-hole again, then don't let me stop you! I'm gonna bed down and try to find something in the morning." The bright beam of light he held abnormally moved upward and downward in a rapid motion against the side of the older voice's head, the glow partially obscured as he used the edge of the source to scratch at a short crop of hair. "Leave it to Tedan Tippedai to book us shitty Transit times…"

"You were expecting anything else...?" the younger one's icy tone was purposefully unyielding in an attempt to be the least reassuring as possible.

The older man turned back to the slimmer figure beside him and chuckled somewhat nervously.

"...yeah, well..." He pointed his beam over to a spot not far from where they stood, if anything to quickly change the subject. The light cast a stark glow over two nearby tree-like forms in the darkness. "Set up camp over there by those, umm..." the voice paused as he searched for an appropriate description of what he thought they actually were "…'things'?" his outline shrugged slightly. "There's gotta' be something dry out here to make a fire with..."

Without another word, the farther beam from the younger man swung off to the side in the direction his peer had guided him, and slowly fought a path against the churning winds.


	2. Chapter One: Allegro

**Sonata** (səˈnɑːtə): _a composition for an instrumental soloist, often with an accompaniment, typically in several movements _

**Chapter One: ****_Allegro_**

A small Kreper sped across the open desert, the outskirts of the sprawling Myce City a mere mirage dancing upon the hilly horizon. The sleek, gray and black hull reflected the blinding morning sun in a dazzling glare as it raced across the sandy dunes. The nimble hovercraft knifed a trail of kicked up dust in its wake; the large twin repulsors bulging from the back of the machine whirled and pumped puffs of white exhaust as it kept its swift pace.

Inside the tinted cockpit of the Kreper, a dark male figure sat in the small vehicle's single seat. The cramped enclosure was dim as the vast array of consoles and screens that lined the controls were on a low power setting. The shadowed man's threadbare, dark leather coat hid most of his features as he sat motionless at the controls with his arms folded over one another. The chin of a black helmet, its battered shell having long since lost its sheen, hung low to his chest from a rested position atop his broad shoulders. The mirror finish of the visor obscured the face hidden beneath; a perfect image of the console reflected off its surface and served as a stark, smooth contrast to the scuffed and ill-treated head gear.

The steering mechanism swayed and turned autonomously in front of him, the small digital screen at its center relaying redundant information on the vehicle's bearings. Suddenly, the display began to flash in a soft, green hue abetted by a low pitch beep with each flicker of light. The face beneath the dark helmet slowly rose to greet the source of the steady tone.

"_Attention pilot,_" a robotic, female voice called from over the Kreper's comm system as the other computers that were sprawled across the console whirred to life in an outburst of light and color. "_Kreper autopilot systems nominal. You are now 5 kilometers from your desired location. Please advise and reduce speed as necessary._"

"...manual control." A low, raspy tone called through the black helmet as his head subtly canted from side to side. The voice was filtered electronically as it ran through the helmet's built in respirator. The man unfolded his arms from his leather clad chest and his gloved hands reached for two objects that flanked each of his knees. Stuffed away into the side compartments of the interior rested the hilts of two long, curved swords at the ready. The weapons were identical to each other aside from their varied colors; one of them lacquered in a deep red coating and appeared freshly cleaned compared to the other's aged, white finish. After a few mild adjustments of the blades, the dark figure grasped at the controls of the agile machine while the other grazed upon a few of the switches and gauges.

"_...Confirmed," _the inflection-less computer prattled after it took a few moments to process the new command. _"Thank you for using Tedan Tippedai S-7 Automatic Pilot Program. Awaiting further instructions._"

"Shut up..." the voice said bluntly as he pushed a small button on his helmet, his visor display illuminating in scanner readings.

"_I'm sorry, that is not a valid com-_" the dark figure's hands nimbly flipped an arrangement of switches and buttons, shutting the guidance computer down before it could finish its monotone thought. The man grasped at the throttle stick and pushed it forward. The bulbous domes of the repulsor engines spun in a high-pitched hum, faster and louder as the spry Kreper zoomed across the dunes.

* * *

Sand swirled around the base of the tall communications array that reached over the desert colony. The towering antenna dwarfed the highest building of the modest settlement and offered a flashing display of needle-like spires and flat panels; each pointed upwards in every direction save one thick strap that dangled taut below the cluster of sand-grimed tech. The strap suspended a woman draped in a long billowing crimson cloak that swayed upon the warm breeze. She let one arm move freely from the cloak, its white armored plate stretched from her elbow to the knuckles of her glove. She ran her hand through her thick head of reddish-brown hair, lightly lathered from perspiration thanks to the oppressive desert heat. The woman tucked the bundle of hair beads back behind her left ear as they clicked and flew about wildly with each blistery gust of wind.

"C'mon..." her young voice muttered softly under her breath.

Her long white boots rested upon the stem of the antenna to stabilize herself as she worked delicately against the wind. She plugged and unplugged various modules and nodes from one another. Her deep, brown eyes hopelessly darted back and forth between the console and a blank digital tablet she held in her opposite hand.

"Any way you could boost the signal a little more?" the young woman said aloud with a despondent sigh. "I'm still not getting anything…."

"_We're already at capacity_," a digitized male voice, though uncannily natural and human-like, emanated from a panel of her armored hand. "_Sabaku has a limited network and it's tapped out just linking the lures._" The voice paused for a moment as if it were pondering something. "_Iria, plug me into the node on the backup generator._"

Hunter Iria unhooked the cable from the console and stuffed the tablet into her crimson cloak. She adjusted the long rifle strapped to her back as she pushed away from the stem with her legs. With a gracefully controlled twirl of her hips, she used her tether to swing around to the other side of the thick pole as her cloak spiraled around her body. Iria braced her feet against the opposite side of the tower once more as she wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead.

"...'wish these things would just come out already," she whispered wantingly as she took the thin cable she removed and plugged into the circular, raised panel at her wrist. She connected the other end inside the input of a small circuit box in front of her with an irritated scoff. "You don't have the _luxury_ of feeling this heat, Bob."

"_Life has its perks,"_ Bob's voice retorted with a short chuckle. _"But I'm more concerned with the town. You're _**_sure_**_ the colonists have all evacuated?"_

"I did what I could, Bob," Iria sighed as her brown eyes slowly scanned over the surroundings below as the circuits beeped and whistled. "I can't _make_ people leave when they don't want to… even if these things are out here."

"_This is their land,"_ Bob responded. _"Miners are proud people."_

Iria's eye lids exasperatedly fluttered as she glanced towards east of the village; her elevated view offered a clear look at the hollowed out entrance of the mine Bob had alluded to. "More like _stubborn_ people."

Bob stifled a laugh once again. _"Then you have more in common than you know."_ He paused for a few seconds as the metallic box began to blare rapidly. _"We're good,"_ Bob snapped from his momentary amusement; his tone business-like. _"Let me take a look."_

Iria uncoiled the cable from the box and shifted her body against the tower. She held the same arm outstretched over the colony. In a brief flash, the risen plate on the protective covering projected a tiny holographic image of a golden sphere adorned with gilded, spinning cones at its top and bottom halves. A glassy, red 'eye' at the center of the spherical AI ball panned their flanks for a moment before the two cones appeared to clamp up and down as if the hologram were blinking.

"_There's still quite a few life signs,"_ Bob's voice hollowly exclaimed.

Iria exhaled in frustration. "Like I said, I did what-"

"_But there mostly on the outskirts. Collateral should be negligible,"_ Bob interjected._ "With the schedule what it is, it'll have to be good enough. I recommend you keep your weapons at a minimum. Type-one package."_

"Check..." Iria's voice carried a hint of veiled boredom within it as she lowered her arm.

"_Don't get careless,"_ Bob picked up on her complacency as his projection faded away. _"We don't want a repeat of yesterday."_

"Yesterday paid more, Bob," she fired back at him as she pulled her stumpy, short barreled revolver from beneath her cloak. "I could afford to get outnumbered yesterday." With one eye closed, she held her gun in front of her face and stared down the length of the truncated sights. "Useless jobs like this are more of a headache than they're worth."

"_Saving lives is useless...?"_ Bob questioned her with a curious tone. After a brief pause, a suppressed, debased sniffle pierced through the audio device and grew to an amused chortle.

Iria's brow narrowed as she uncomfortably shifted her suspended, petite frame against another warm gust of wind. She pulled up her arm again to summon Bob once more. "What are you laughing at?"

"_Nothing,"_ the AI twirled and blinked as Bob's electronic voice seemed to hide a broad smile. "_I just feel like I've had this conversation once before."_ Bob twirled around and diligently scanned the area before disappearing again._ "We're up. Ready to proceed when you are."_

Iria cocked the hammer of her pistol as she swung herself back over to the other side of the tower. The Hunter took her free hand and tapped a few buttons on the console before her finger found itself hovering over the last switch. With a deep intake of breath, Iria flipped it upwards. Almost instantaneously, soft whirring noises echoed through the empty streets and alleys of the colony. From her fixed position above the town, Iria watched as large plumes of a blue smoke erupted in a circular order around Sabuku; one after the other until the skies became engulfed in a cerulean haze. Iria reached into her cloak and produced a pair of goggles which she quickly strapped over her hair and face.

"Lures are deployed," Iria confirmed to her partner as she tapped the button on the side of her goggles, the red lens gleamed upon activating and cast a rosy glow around her eyes.

"_They're pushing toward the center,"_ Bob instructed. _"Move it!"_

After a final adjustment to the lens, Iria pushed a small button on her rifle's clasp. Her tether snapped in an instant and sent the Hunter careening toward the sandy ground below. With her arms out stretched, her cloak billowed violently with her rapid descent.

"How many?" Iria shouted over the wind in her face. Her gloved hand reached out and grabbed the circumference of the tower. As her grip tightened, she pivoted her body and planted the sole of her boot into the stem at an angle. Sparks from the conjoined metal plates that protected her foot shot back up the tower's length as she slowed her decline.

"_Five or six… from the north,_" Bob called back calmly. _"It's tough to tell with these readings..."_

At the seemingly last possible moment before she crashed into the solid ground, Iria pushed herself from the base of the pole and leapt out towards the gritty sand below. She tucked her shoulder and rolled down to a knee, her cloak settled around her amid a cloud of yellow dust. She gripped her weapon with both hands and pointed it in the direction Bob had instructed her to. It's red visor lens went off in a blinking rage as readings began to pour in.

From around the corner of the nearby adobe dwelling, a pack of fearsome and snarling creatures emerged from the alley and raced into the street. The cantankerous organisms growled through their oozing fangs, ostensibly angered that their pale-pink skin and patchy tufts of brown fur along their spines had been stained a light blue color from the Hunter's trap. They sped across the drift on all fours, their hind legs unnaturally larger than the fronts and their razor-like tails whipped about in a furious rage.

"I knew it..." Iria jeered as she trained her sights on one of the creature's unnatural visage. "_More_ Zeiramoids."

She squeezed the trigger as the monsters swiftly approached her. Her bullet escaped the barrel of the revolver, whizzed through the air, and struck one of the beasts directly into its lumpy, featureless face. It fell in a heap to the sand as its remorseless companions trampled over its corpse in the direction of the bang that reverberated the quiet village.

"_Just stick to the plan,"_ Bob raised his voice slightly over the commotion.

Iria straightened herself upwards and fired potshots into the horde. Some of the slugs managed to make their mark at such a distance while a few of the nimble monsters had negotiated agile paths around her projectiles. She wasted nearly half of the pack before her revolver clicked with her last round. With no wasted effort, she tucked the gun away and swung her long carbine rifle over her shoulder and caught it in her free hand. She took aim at the keen Zeiramoids along the feathered sights of the lengthy barrel as the monsters quickly closed the gap between them.

A shot rang from the rifle, eliminating another creature as Iria turned her lower body and began running in the opposite direction as the dwindling mob to maintain her distance. The Hunter continued to fire across her body back at her pursuers.

"_Iria, heads up!"_ Bob shouted, gaining the Hunter's attention. _"There's more coming from the east!"_

True to the AI's word, Iria's lenses lit up in a flash of arrows to her flank. Her eyes were drawn in the signal's direction to her left side. Another mob of drooling beasts somehow had managed to avoid their sensors as they angled towards her. Iria's teeth ground together as she doubled her efforts; her stride quickened as she spirited away from the two converging groups while she adjusted the grip on her rifle for her next move.

The Zeiramoids moved as a cohesive unit, joining from both directions toward her in a desperate effort to overwhelm the Hunter. Iria planted her foot, as well as the butt of her rifle, into the sand at a single point and came to a sliding stop. She hastily pressed the large button on the bulky clasp that held the strap of her firearm to loose it freely. A thick cloud of white smoke escape through the folds of her cloak and rapidly swallowed her petite figure seconds before the Zeiramoid's claws and hooks were within reach. The nimble Hunter emerged from the apex of the haze with an elegant, slim form as she leapt from the danger.

Iria tumbled through the air having narrowly avoided the throng of pincers and fangs that swiped and snapped at her empty drapery from both directions. Her bright, white armor gleamed amid the morning sun, the snug alloy formed to her shapely torso and hips. The sleek, ivory armaments offered a stark contrast to her navy blue combat suit she wore beneath. As the blistering rays beamed off of the round pauldrons atop her shoulders, the soaring Hunter readied her rifle once more.

The muzzle end of the barrel swung downward on a concealed hinge, unveiling several clandestine cylindrical tubes hidden within the forestock. As she felt her body descend, her gloved hand cranked back on a medium sized lever near the ejection port of the weapon. Her rifle rained down dozens and dozens of needle like projectiles in a strafing waft over the group of monsters below; each piercing the rubbery hides of the foul creatures or impaling into the sand at their feet. Iria's long white boots reached for the loose sand below and the crafty Hunter immediately crouched to a knee upon landing. With a flick of her wrist, she popped the muzzle back into place on her gun.

A sly smile crossed Iria's lips as the Zeiramoids, struggling within the tangled mass of crimson fabric and gaseous vapor, cried out in agony as each needle erupted in an incandescent blaze.

Iria slowly stood from her knelt position. She shouldered her rifle and pushed her goggles up her forehead as she watched the ghastly assembly of gnarled flesh pop and burn before her. Her lips danced into a pleased grin as she surveyed the damage.

"_So..."_ Bob interrupted her celebration in his deadpan, placid voice. _"I'm pretty sure that was a Type-two weapon."_

"Yeah, well...," a moderate snicker escaped her lips as she shrugged her shoulders. "All's fair in easy money, B-,"

Before she could continue her gloating, her goggles cried out in a bellowing choler of sounds and flashes. Iria's eyes shifted upwards towards the commotion coming from her forehead as it grabbed her attention.

"Shit..." Iria swore in a muted tone as she pulled the goggles back down over her eyes. Almost instantly, a swarm of Zeiramoids, dozens of them, burst from the thick blue haze behind her. Some of them even bounded directly overhead and blindly scurried away from her covered in the azure powder from the lures.

"_Looks like you're not done earning yet,"_ Bob quipped with a sarcastic humor.

"This is a lot more than five or six!" Iria sighed as she began to give chase and pulled a new clip of ammunition from her belt. As she carefully reloaded, the Hunter sprinted towards a narrow alley a number of the beasts begun to bottleneck while a few strays split off in various directions amid the town square. She entered the shadow of the back street; Iria aimed her rifle down the extent of the passage. Promptly, she noted that one of the monsters toward the middle of the pack was much larger than its impatient peers. As the frenzied creatures struggled in their attempts to get around the lurch, Iria wisely trained her sights on the bigger beast. With a well-placed slug in what she presumed was its back, the creature toppled down the narrow passage and obstructed two of its friends that dawdled behind it. Iria was quick to catch up to the line and hurled herself over the pile of mangled limbs. With three successive midair shots as she passed overhead, her rifle fell all three beast with fatal blows to each.

"Can't say I miss the old Zeiramoids very much!" Iria remarked as she landed back to her feet with a grunt. She rotated her gun back in the direction of her advance and fired at the stragglers.

"_They're getting weaker with each generation,"_ Bob explained. _"But in turn, they are getting harder to track."_

As Iria gave chase down the alley, two large explosions rocked the buildings around her and nearly took the Hunter off her feet. Iria collected her balance with a surprised countenance. As she continued her dash down the corridor, she glanced over the top of the adobe huts to see patches of flame and black smoke rising from the opposite side. The plumes of the dark fog were suddenly and violently wafted away in a single direction, accompanied by the high pitched squeals of expiring Zeiramoids and the resonant hum of some kind of engine.

"What the hell…?" Iria cursed between breaths. Another explosion rang out behind another set of buildings behind her. Iria kept her footing this time, but found herself dodging bits of glassed sand and debris that rained down around her from over the surrounding buildings.

"_Whoa!"_ Bob's voice screamed out in a sudden lapse of his typical level-headed composure. _"Iria! There are people out here!"_

"I didn't plant those!" she shouted back and peeled off a close-range shot from her hip at a Zeiramoid that stumbled from around a corner in reaction to the explosions. Her point-blank blast tore the beast's body to pieces and splattered its pale innards across the adjacent wall. Shielding her face from the disgusting and acidic viscera as she passed the falling husk, Iria's pace suddenly quickened with a newfound urgency. "Bob, did someone else pick this job up?!"

"_Of course not,"_ Bob confirmed in a sharp, biting tone. "_You know that no Hunter would even bother to register after you've taken a contract." _

A third explosion rang out ahead of her, followed by another quick pass of the screaming engine and howling monsters. Iria noted that the blue fog of Bob's lures was steadily dissipating amidst the detonations circling Sabaku. The riled Hunter canted her head about in a doubtless manner.

"You might what to check again!" she hollered sarcastically. Iria turned a corner and fired shot after shot at the fleeing Zeiramoids as she maneuvered around their flailing, wounded bodies. "There's definitely someone else here!"

"_Stick to the plan!"_ Bob emphatically shouted at the young Hunter. _"W___e don't want anyone to get hurt if the miners ar_e fighting back!"_

Iria's eyes narrowed in frustration as she reversed down another back alley. She double-backed towards the main street that bisected through the colony... and to the source of the explosions.

"That's no miner, Bob! Not with that kind of firepower," Iria defiantly reasoned with a narrowed brow, "...and I plan on getting my pay for this job!"

Iria rushed through the shadowy alleyway, its length covered with various clay arches and panels of ornately patterned cloths pulled taut to shade the passage, with a full head of steam. The smell of burning glass filled her lungs as the hot air spilled into the gap at the alley's entrance; the bright light at the end flashed with the silhouettes of passing Zeiramoids. She knocked her rifle into her shoulder as she prepared herself to scout around the quickly approaching corner. Iria pressed her back against the wall in a gentle thud at the entry. As she canted her head around the opposite corner, Iria judged the area beyond her adjacent side. She could see the small patches of lingering flames from the earlier explosions… as well as the charred gristle of Zeiramoid husks that served as the kindle. She turned her nose up to the putrid combination of the seared flesh and fumes of the glassed sand; yet her scanner determined that the area was clear with its silence. Iria spun her rifle around her body as she tactically maneuvered herself around the corner.

Before her feet could settle into the drift, a large pale hook arm swiped at her from beyond the nook. Iria, startled and completely off guard, jumped back a step but not before the powerful swing of the second arm slapped at the side of her rifle stock. The force of the blow knocked the weapon from the Hunter's grasp and it careened out into the middle of the street.

"Son of a-!" Iria cursed her chagrin. Abandoning the idea to lunge for the carbine, her hand snapped down to her belt and opted to pull her repeating pistol from its holster. She promptly fired three shots from her hip into the charging monster as she sidestepped further into the street to avoid its assault. The razed beast fell to the sand in a billow of debris at the Hunter's feet. Iria's frustration boiled as she ripped the goggles from her face and spiked the lenses down into the sand.

"...what's even the point if they don't work?!"

As she briefly lost her sensibilities, her overbearing temper clouded the roaring echo of another creature that crept behind her. Iria turned towards the alley she had just been in when she finally deciphered the location of the sound, though it was too late. Another fleshy beast pounced from within the shadows of the alley and tackled her before she could bring her pistol to bear. Iria fell backwards into the sand and the vile creature pinned down the young Hunter's gun arm as it perched atop her prone body. She managed to quickly force her free hand between them and pushed against the creature's neck from up under it's jaws. The beast's snapping fangs were centimeters away from her face and the strain of the Zeiramoids strength grew more and more exhausting as it struggled against her. The Hunter gritted her teeth harshly as she attempted to wriggle her gun arm from between its sarcous foot and the coarse sand beneath.

_"So much for easy money?"_ Bob's impassive voice knifed into the conflict.

"Shut up, Bob," Iria spat from between her teeth, "I don't need your commentary...!" As she chastised her partner, Iria forced her pinned arm from under the Zeiramoid's grasp and shoved her pistol's barrel into the pink folds under the beast's jaw. She fired... and fired again. And again. The unnatural creature's unbridled persistence endured the wounds for as long as it could muster; though as its fangs chomped down toward Iria's face, she began to feel the weight of the enfeebled abomination press against her as its strength waned.

The withered creature's mass pinched her gun and forearm firmly to between its underbelly and her chest, trapping her weapon again. She attempted to push the dying mammoth from atop her petite frame before _another_ low growl caught Iria's ear.

"Oh, give me a break!" Iria said softly with a groan. She tilted her head back into the sand to look above and behind her. Another blue-stained, four-legged Zeiramoid paced itself towards the struggling Hunter. As it stalked closer, Iria attempted to slide her small frame from under the prostrate brute atop her.

_"It's coming…"_ Bob spoke with an elevated tone.

Iria grunted as she repeatedly slammed her fist into the side of the monster in a futile attempt to jar it off of her. She caught a glimpse back upwards to the closing monster as it bared its long fangs in preparation of an easy onslaught.

"_Quit playing around, Iria!"_ Bob grew anxious. The young Hunter shoved against the fleshy hide of the behemoth though she could barely squeeze an inch from under it.

"**_Iria!_**"

As the beast surged towards her, Iria was suddenly enveloped in a stark shadow as all the air around her seemed to press down on her and force her and her dead-weight 'friend' deeper into the dunes. With a high-pitched yelp that was absorbed within a loud engine-like hum, the Zeiramoid disappeared from sight and sound along with her limp assailant. The dark blur that engulfed Iria left her just as quickly as it came as she shielded her face from the stinging sand with her freed arms.

"Huh…?!" Iria flung her head back at the initial sight of the blur and squinted through the kicked up grime that suddenly clouded her vision. Through the swirling dust, she watched as the two Zeiramoids, the one she had slain on top of her as well as the beast that preyed upon her vulnerable position seconds before, tumble across the flaxen street in a tangled pile. The mutilated bodies and limbs bounced about violently, trapped between the drift and the ventral side of a low-hovering Kreper. The sleek, black vehicle suddenly yawed to the side and skid toward a row of buildings that lined the avenue as the battered Zeiramoid and its deceased peer rolled to a stop amongst the cloudy wake.

As the dust was swept along behind the racing current, Iria's eyes widened to the size of kajakunban leaves at the sight of the vehicle… and of her sudden fortune.

The bulbous domed hatch of the craft hissed as it depressurized and shot itself open like a cannon. A dark figure burst from the cockpit of the Kreper as it's aerosonic propulsion systems whirled and caused the craft to slide to an automated stop. Two curved blades glistened in the sunlight as it bathed around the figure's outstretched arms; the tail of a dark, leather coat that draped over the body tossed about the air on the way to the ground.

The reeling Zeiramoid had no time to recover before one of the blades pierced down into its skull in a spatter of its pallid insides. The individual's silver and black boots knifed into the gritty earth when the figure landed in a firm offensive stance as the steel burrowed deep into the ground. Iria peered closer through the coarse haze and recognized the vague figure as a male based on his size. However, the man's face laid concealed beneath the reflective visor of the dark helmet he wore; a helmet that slowly turned to scan the surroundings amid a flash of readings that raced across its mirrored finish. The mystifying figure stared down a dwindling pack of remaining Zeiramoids off in the distance; cold, emotionless, and unnaturally robotic.

Almost forgetting that she had been freed in part from her shock, Iria intently kept her eyes trained on the man's subtle body language as she stumbled up to her knees. "Bob?" she remarked in a guarded tone, "That's not a miner..."

"_What's his outfit?"_ Bob interrogated her. _"Is he a Hunter? Ghomvack?"_

Iria's fists gripped her pistol tightly as her deep brown eyes held a relentless focus on the mysterious man in the distance. "I don't know."

The blade dripped with a pale ooze as the shadowed figure pulled its length from the monster's hide. The visors gaze continued to glare emotionless toward the pack before he launched himself in their direction. Surprised by his agility, Iria naturally trained her pistol on the man as he bolted towards the stragglers.

"_Wait!"_ Bob just as instinctively called to her and stayed the Hunter's hand for a moment.

He shifted his weight and pushed off a foothold in the sand and his athletic frame dashed towards two of the creatures that froze in confusion. The dark figure made a quick slash at the head of the closest with one of the blades; the razor-like steel cut through its mark with ease. He used his forward momentum to veer the second blade towards the other. The Zeiramoid attempted to leap upwards from its attacker; but with a twist of his arm, the shrewd swordsmen altered the direction of his swipe in the same motion. The helpless thing was severed in two at the waist in an instant. The man methodically twirled to a stop in a cloud of sand that sprayed over the defenseless monster's dying bodies. The swordsman lightly tossed one of the blades up from his gloved hand, flashing a glance of the deep red lacquer of the hilt before catching it again in a backhanded grip. He impaled the blade into the sand and, without any wasted motion, the dark man efficiently brought up a sidearm from its holster. His visor lowered as his hidden gaze bore down on two more fleeing beasts a distance away. Two shots cracked the still air of the empty streets and the unexpectant creatures slid face first into the dunes as the bullets struck them from behind.

From the other side of the street, Iria's eyes beamed with uncertainty as she observed the man's unsympathetic tact and machine-like movements. As she watched him lower his gun back down to his side, she slowly and cautiously rose to her feet.

"This guy's _definitely_ not a miner," Iria reiterated her earlier thought.

A calm wind lapped at gritty earth around the feet of the shadowy attacker. After a brief pause, he holstered his pistol at his hip and swung the blade into the sheath on his back. With the dull white handle of the sword protruding over his shoulder, the cold, impassive visor of the black helmet turned to face the young Hunter across the gap.

Iria felt her body tense up under the emotionless gaze of the man as her hold around the handle of her gun tightened even more. The man's hidden eyes seemingly remained focused on her as he turned to retrieved the red handled sword protruding from the sand. The mysterious man placed it on his back next to it's ivory peer as he commenced a slow pace towards Iria's direction, much to her alarm.

Iria held her weapon at the ready as her brow narrowed in a quiet determination. She watched him as he wordlessly approached her for a few meters more before she called in his direction.

"Who are you with?" she raised her voice in a commanding and confident tone. "This is a closed Tedan Tippedai contract!"

The swordsman ignored her shouts as he came to a sudden stop in the middle of the street. His aloof visor lowered toward the ground. Iria followed his gaze and noticed him carefully bend over to recover something buried beneath the sand.

Her eyes widened in astonishment as she fought to find her words. "Wait…. Hey!" The dark man had pulled Iria's long carbine rifle from a dune….

"Drop it!" Iria shouted in a dominating pitch. The Hunter momentarily lowered the aim of her pistol in an attempt to be somewhat diplomatic despite her perturbed delivery. "It's one thing to try to jump my bounty, but it's another to touch my gun!"

The helmeted figure ignored Iria once again. He used a gloved finger to remove a bit of sand that had managed to collect in the exhaust chamber before he ruffled the yellow, feathered sight at the end of the muzzle. He freed the plumage of the clogged grit trapped between the creases of the veins.

"Hey!" Iria blared, more forceful than before. "I'm talking to you!"

Unheeded, he shook the rest of the sand from the length of the carbine with a few knocks of the stock against the toe of his silver boot, then rose the length of the weapon to his chest. The dark man cocked the hammer back and pointed the barrel towards Iria's direction.

Iria gasped audibly before she steeled and refocused her gaze; those deep brown eyes of hers trained her pistol's sight directly back at him.

"What are you doing?!" her agitation was palpable. "Drop it or I'll drop _you_!"

"_Iria..."_ Bob called to her in a desperate attempt to gain her attention.

The silent warrior offered nothing in return. The reflective visor leaned into the sights as his hands ran along the base of the forestock to support his aim.

"I'm warning you!" she roared as she confidently brushed closer with her gun with an anchored stance.

The man continued to endure her cries as his gloved finger slid around the trigger with careful precision.

"Don't!" Her finger anxiously trembled against the smooth finish of her pistol's own firing mechanism. As she began to squeeze at the polished metal, Bob's AI suddenly burst from her wrist. His 'eye' swiveled toward the dark man's direction.

_"Iria!" _Bob's voice bellowed with urgency as the two cones of his projection spun about in a wild panic. _"Behind him!"_

The Hunter's attention snapped over the man's scuffed helm, just as Bob's frightful words reached her ears. She witnessed the silhouetted form of a medium-sized Zeiramoid that lurched through the dissipating blue cloud behind him. It hurdled through the air towards the swordsman with a screeching howl. Though the black veiled man held his aim in her direction, her instincts took over her hands without warning. After a split-second of pause, Iria begrudgingly conceded her aim over the man's head and snapped off a single shot. In that same moment, her dark eyes fell back to the cloaked figure, and to the muzzle flash from the end of her rifle with a loud successive bang. Iria gasped as her breath escaped her lungs and, with a wince, she braced her body for what was to come.

She had never been shot before, but she had heard the pain didn't come from the initial entry, but after… Her mind wandered as she waited for it to come to her. What was she thinking? Saving this guy just for him to return the favor by killing her? She waited. Any awful realization washed over her as braced herself. Sh knew her rifle was powerful thanks to all of the augmentations she had made over the years. Maybe she would feel the impact after all... the thought turned her stomach. She waited some more… and waited.

_"Iria! _**_Iria!_**_ Snap out of it!"_ Bob's vexed voice trailed back into her ears. Her eyes eased open to see the man still standing there with her gun trained on her. The Zeiramoid she had picked from the air with her bullet splattered down into the sand behind him. The helmet canted slightly as if to glance over his broad shoulder at the sound of the shrieking creature.

An equally unsettling scream emanated from behind Iria's position and was accompanied by an even louder thud. Her mouth hung agape, she twisted her head over her own shoulder to see a large, hulking Zeiramoid behind her. Its slimy body was propped against the wall of the building and featured a fresh wound ripped through its contorted face. Iria stared at the dying monster for a moment before realization took over. She swung her gaze back around to the dark figure... this time with a _much_ different expression on her face.

"What the hell are you thinking?" she wailed in a manner most disapproving. "You couldn't have said something?!"

The dark man lowered the aim of the rifle as the standoff ended. The unnerving, emotionless gaze beneath the visor found its way back her. He disengaged the firing mechanism and pulled the rifle to his shoulder with one hand. With a nonchalant coldness, the swordsman promptly tossed the weapon towards Iria. As it landed a few meters away from the feet of the frenzied Hunter, the shadowy figure began to turn on his heel.

"Clean the block," his low, raspy voice amplified through the helmet's respiratory vocoder. His tone was short and disconcerting behind the muffled obstruction of the helm. He started towards his Kreper as the tail of his dark coat twirled on the breeze. "The aim is off."

"What-?" Iria was stunned. She watched dumbfounded as he attempted to leave and she couldn't help but to take a few steps in pursuit. One of her thin eyebrows raised as if to over-exaggerate her confusion. "Does that mean you were _trying_ to hit me?!"

As he trudged through the sand, the man fished into one of the side pockets of his long coat and produced a small mechanism with a switch at its top.

"You're welcome," he answered rather insincerely. He flipped the switch with his thumb shortly after.

Another explosion erupted from the east, though it was much more muffled than the ones from before. Iria turned to the direction of the distant detonation with a peculiar look. The blast did _not_ come from within the colony.

"_H-He blew the mine!_" Bob stammered after a brief and disbelieving pause. Iria's suspicions were confirmed. She turned her attention back to the dark man, her eyes ablaze with a rolling fury. She gripped her pistol tightly in her hand as she stormed in the direction of the small Kreper.

"Hey!" she wailed between her long, determined strides as she trailed him though the helmeted man remained silent as his trek towards the vehicle did not waiver. Iria pointed her pistol back towards the eastern edge of Sabaku. "Why did you do that, huh? You just blew up their-" She cut her appeal short as she noted he still wasn't listening to it, nor was he even trying. Before she even realized what she was doing, she had begun a sprint after him.

Iria eventually caught up and attempted to stymie his path. The dark man paused as the visor of the helmet lowered to meet her glowering gaze. Iria stood in defiance and though she was hesitant to brandish her weapon in front of him again, she surely made no attempt to hide it from him either.

"I'm talking to you," Iria demanded with a soft, biting coldness. As she glared into the mirrored finish of the visor, she realized all she could see was her own reflection. Flustered at the sight, she took a brief moment to look the man over. "You just wrecked this colony's livelihood and you're just gonna' walk away?"

"They dig for a living," the man's frigid intonation as he interrupted her was just as barbed as her own. He attempted to walk around her, "Last I checked, there's still plenty of desert left."

Iria shifted her body, echoing his movements to block his path. "How _noble_ of you. Besides, I didn't ask for you to play hero."

"You didn't ask, did you?" the head beneath the helmet idly canted to the side in a curious display of veiled sarcasm. "Yet, here you are..."

"Yeah?" Iria allowed a sly smirk to pierce through her displeasure. "And so are y-!"

She paused as her eyes rested to the collar of the man's coat, at the brilliant reflection of the silver armor that peeked from underneath the black leather flap at his chest and the black pendent that hung around his neck. Iria's eyes narrowed at the sight of the adorned, rounded bauble… this was no ordinary jewelry.

"You _are_ a Hunter," Iria continued in a soft, puzzled voice. Yet, her steely resolve soon resurfaced. "Then you should know that blowing up mines wasn't in the contract you just tried to steal from me!"

The dark helmet nodded over his leather-clad shoulder in the direction of the billowing smoke on the horizon.

"And Where do you think those things were coming from?" the man's filtered, gelid voice cut through Iria's tirade like a cold knife. Taken aback, Iria cut her eyes towards the east and to the detonation site. The man, without a pause, closed the gap between the two and his visor bore down unto the young face of the Hunter.

"I did them a favor," the man skimmed by Iria with a subtle shove of his shoulder as he pressed on towards his Kreper, "...and now I'm doing you _another _one."

Iria spontaneously reacted to his advance. She turned and grabbed the man by the leather of his arm sleeve to stop him once more. "Who are you?"

The dark figure stopped and took a slow, brooding look back towards her. A long, muffled exhale managed to break through his vocoder. Iria didn't have to see the whole of his obscured expression to tell that he was growing frustrated with her. The pair of Hunters stood unfaltering, latched to each other. Iria's eyes remained locked on the smooth finish of the closed visor; the helmeted man bore down his larger frame onto Iria's short stature.

"_Answer_ me…" she repeated in a low, imposing voice.

"Go collect your Kem," the man's voice called back with a gentle tug of his arm away from her grasp.

Iria's grip tightened around the worn, threadbare material. "Figured you'd try to get there first?"

"I don't want your blood-money," his voice lowered to a threatening growl, "...but I just might think about if you don't let go."

"Aren't you just a hero?" Iria sardonically leaned her head to the side as she forcibly pulled him closer to her. She nodded her chin towards his helmet. "You'd have to take that stupid thing off to claim it anyway, so I guess I shouldn't be that worried."

"Whatever..." he scoffed and dismissed Iria's clout. He went to pull himself away again, but Iria would not relent. She opened her mouth to launch into her next verbal jibe….

"_Wait…!"_ From her fist clinched around the man's sleeve, Bob's AI erupted from within Iria's armored forearm and projected itself in between them. Both of the standoffish Hunters glanced downward toward the tiny shapes as they spun to life. The cones blinked over the swiveling red eye as it pivoted over toward the direction of the man. Bob took a long 'look' into the helmet that stared back at the curious hologram. The sphere yawed slightly and pitched its view upwards and over the Hunter's broad shoulder. It blinked a few times as its regard was drawn to the swords at the man's back.

Iria followed Bob's 'gaze' as he turned. She shook her head in confusion as she saw nothing out of the ordinary with the weapons, aside from the ornate, round emblem that had been engraved into the red and white hilts.

"_Wait a second-!" _Bob's voice uncharacteristically stammered. His uneasiness immediately drew Iria's bewildered investigation. The man's hidden gaze stayed trained on the projection in complete silence as Iria felt the tension of his arm slowly subside against her strained clutches. She noted his change in tension and subsequently began to loosen her own grip.

"You know him, Bob?" Iria questioned, bemused by her partners sudden intrigue in the dark figure and his weapons.

"_Bob…?"_ the voice softly hummed through the vocal array, equally perplexed; it was barely audible to be picked up the vocoder, but not suppressed enough to avoid Iria's concentrated attention completely.

Iria's eyes swayed between the two at a loss for words; her befuddled expression studied both the dark man and Bob's spinning AI with scrutiny. "What is-?" she could barely get the words out much to her chagrin.

Bob continued in an awestruck voice. _"You're-!"_

"I'm nobody," the shadowy Hunter finished the thought with a quick pull of his arm to free himself from Iria's slackened grasp. She was pulled forward, slightly off balance as she hadn't yet fully conceded to let him go before he managed to escape. Iria glared at him through her locks of dark hair as the shadowy swordsman slowly backpedaled towards his Kreper. The visor of the helm remained trained on the young Hunter as he retreated.

"Just some bounty-jumping _hero_..."

The man turned and walked towards the Kreper in silence. Iria and Bob watched, mystified as he crawled up the sleek outer hull, removed the two swords from his back and leapt down into the open cockpit with them at their sides. After a few moments of adjusting the controls, the bulging hatch closed around the Hunter and the umbrella-like domes of the twin aerosonic motors hummed to life. As the man waited for the dome to close fully, the ebony helmet subtly turned to glance in Iria's direction once more. Iria stared back into the distant visor with a persistent attentiveness. As the hatch closed, the Kreper slowly lifted from the ground in a cloud of coarse sand. The machine pitched itself to the opposite direction as a wave of sand crested in its wake. The onyx craft flew down the street and out of Sabaku in a blinding blur.

Iria stood steadfast in the middle of the street; her narrow brow observed the wind settle the dust that had been kicked up by the machine. Her expression gradually began to soften as the engine's hum grew more and more quiet with distance. Iria lifted her face to the cloudless sky above her and rested all of her tension on her neck. She basked in the biting warmth from the desert sun; heat that had been an afterthought in her mind during the scuffle but managed to remind her of its presence as her high wore off. Iria lips expelled a long and exasperated sigh. Alleviated from her enmity, her shoulders slumped and she let her armored body give way to a backwards cascade towards the ground. Enveloped in a yellow cloud of dust, the cushioning blanket of dunes cradled her exhaustion. Her grip loosened from her pistol at the end of her outstretched arm as her recumbent figure sunk into the drift.

Her matted, sweat-soaked brown locks and her long hair beads sprawled across her thin face and over her nose like she had been swept over with a broom upon impact with the ground… but the fatigued Iria did not give her slapdash appearance much thought at that particular moment.

"Bob..." she wearily uttered in a stale voice through the unkempt mane of hair and round beads. Her gloved hand reached to her neck and tugged at the clasp of her blue suit. She unzipped the form-fitting collar down her chest to relieve herself from the temperature and exposed her blue license pendant that clung to the skin beneath her garb. "I don't suppose you want to tell me what that was all about, huh?"

She waited for her partner's response. Yet, it didn't come.

She reluctantly pushed herself up from the sand with her arms to a seated position. Her fingers of her partially gloved hand whisked the hair from her face while she tucked her beads back into place. She brought her opposite forearm up to her eye level in front of her chest.

"Hey, Bob...?" she called out again as she stared down to the flat panel atop her wrist. She hadn't even noticed that his hologram had even disappeared. She gave her armor and subtle and wholly unnecessary shake as if to rouse the AI within. "Bob…!?"

No answer. Defeated, Iria flopped backwards once more into the sand with a groan.

"Guy shows up and he runs..." she muttered her irritation aloud to no one in particular. She laid there for a few moments more before she let her head fall over to the side. With her cheek pressed into the hot sand, she stared across the street to the prone rifle as it lay halfway buried in the fine grain, meters away from her. Iria blew a defeated huff of air through her nose as her dark eyes peered over the distant weapon.

"I can't catch a break..."


	3. Interlude: Mosso

**Interlude: **__Mosso__

Two tents were set up adjacent to each other in between two enfeebled trees that protruded from the earth; their gnarled, sickly branches reached high over head as if they were trying to escape this inhospitable planet themselves. The tents were coarsely made from a combination of tattered, yet ornate materials with a contrasting patchwork of strips from animal skins of varying textures. The modest hovels were set up in a type of cross arrangement perpendicular between the two trees, their porthole entrances facing one another with a roaring fire situated in the middle of the formation. It certainly wasn't a miracle that there happened to be enough dead resources and kindle on this bleak rock to provide a respectable camp, but it was safe to assume that the stark contrast of the incandescent flame gifted the barren land of a natural light it had not seen in quite some time.

The vibrant and flickering ambiance cascaded upon a figure that sat on the ground, propped against one of the mangled trunks jutting from the surface. Gazing into the fire from his makeshift seat, a young and athletic man stared silently into the crackling flames; his tanned, amber skin reflected the unsteady light. The same could not be said for his armor, a stretchable alloy whose once glorious reflective, silver sheen had long since dulled from years of hard use, not to mention the rigors of the hostile environment that surrounded the camp. A thick, black piping surrounded the edges of the armored plates and served as a type of graft that connected them together. The protective alloy covered his chest entirely as well as his waist, arms, and legs in a seamless style that was simple yet functional. The plates firmly gripped his athletic frame, snug against the black form-fitting combat suit worn beneath that covered his body from the thin choker around his neck to his toes. Though encased in this silver and black shell of armaments, he remained limber and flexible as his outstretched legs crossed over one another at the ankle with is boots at the base of the fire.

"Hey, kid!" the same older, gruff voice from before called out from within one of the tents.

The young man uncomfortably shifted his body at the sound of the older voice and his crossed arms tightened the grip around his armored chest. The slightest movement of his head, as well as the occasional soft, stale breeze left over from the earlier violent winds allowed the small bundle of decorative hair beads tucked behind the teen's left ear freedom to softly clink and click against each other. His thick shoulder length brown hair and long, unorthodox bangs partially concealed the deep, green eyes hidden behind them; piercing eyes that stayed trained on the campfire. As the radiant light he gazed into glittered and reflected off of his glowing green orbs, a stark coldness lay embedded within them with an icy and unwavering glare.

"I know you can hear me, boy!" the burly voice shouted from within the tent once again, the rickety frame of the structure shaking as the older man moved about inside. "I thought I sent you out for better rations before we left?!"

The young man simply tilted his head backwards against the trunk of the tree as he continued to pour into the flames with a nonchalant coldness. The musky draft that blew through the campsite wafted at the small pendent that hung from the choker around his neck, the rounded shape softly tapped against his chest plate. The lilac-colored adornment was a half yin-yang shaped object with three small, glimmering jewels embedded into its surface. It was the sign that the young man was a fledgling Hunter. The apprentice's nose briefly crinkled at first whiff of the many foul stenches the current carried yet he still stared blankly into the blaze, motionless and quiet.

After rustling about as much as one could in a shelter so small, the source of the gruff voice slowly began to back out of the tent. The young Hunter's green eyes finally removed themselves from their fixed gaze over to the loud commotion. The older man slowly and awkwardly backed out of the small porthole opening of his tent while his rear end embarrassingly made the exit first. He grunted loudly and painfully as the strain on his older frame wasn't built for such rigors anymore. His movements were so loud and so careless that it was a wonder how the fragile structure hadn't collapsed on top of him already. Just as soon as the young man caught a glimpse of the unpleasant sight, his eyes found their way back to the glinting flames just as quickly.

The other man fastened the entry flap of his tent once he had fully managed to escape from its hold on him. He crawled about the dusty ground as he grumbled to himself and fumbled with a few packs of emergency rations tucked away under one arm. He held another unopened pack in his mouth, clenched between his teeth while his other arm awkwardly pinched two sheathed swords underneath his bicep and against the side of his chest. He was obviously much older than the teen but his rigid, strong frame told a much different story than that of his klutzy quibbling. The built physique attired beneath the threadbare and tattered trench coat that covered his own lightly armored garb appeared more than capable, even for a man of his age. Short, scruffy salt and pepper hair topped his head; a spiked, unkempt mess above a gray bandanna that covered his forehead completely. His square jaw and rigid face hadn't seen the likes of a blade in weeks and the peppered stubble made him look even older than he might have actually been… or what he might lead you to believe.

As he approached the base of his designated tree, he disdainfully spat the food wrapped from between his teeth to the dirt below. "Yeah, bud. I got it," he said concealing a laugh as he struggled to maintain his haul, his dark colored hair beads flew about as he battled against his encumbrance of provisions. "Thanks for offering though."

The young Hunter sat quietly. He hadn't said a word….

As he flopped down on his backside against the tree opposite of the young Hunter, a long thin cord made of some sort of threaded leather loosed itself from his long coat. The black pendant at the end of the wrapping, similar in shape to the young man's across from him, flashed a brilliant light as the jewels embedded into the round shape caught the reflection of the fire.

"Hey, Kaz?" the older man asked while arranged his supplies around him. He settled in and dusted a bit of the dirt and caked-on grime his coat seemed to collect from their earlier adventure. "You gonna' eat any of this garbage...?"

The young Hunter called 'Kaz' glanced over the dancing flames to watch his mentor open one of the rations. He slowly pulled out a long, pale, cream-colored insect. Its wormish, alien-like body had turned almost translucent from sitting in the bag of preservative liquid within the container. The older Hunter turned his nose up and scowled at both the sight and the smell of the foul creature. The young man watched as he closely examined the long, dead insect with both hands as if he was both afraid to touch it and also contemplating how he was supposed to eat it.

"This can't be the Mycian standard..." the older man said as he took one look at the creature's head and face with a furrowed brow. "Yeah, I'm not starting with you," his thoughts escaped as he stared in the insect's ghostly, opaque eyes and quickly twisted the creature around the opposite way to avoid the ghoulish image. He leaned in as if he was going to take a bite of the other end, but then he paused for a moment. The older man's face fell flush once again and he grimaced. "...yeah, that doesn't seem much better." He slowly looked over to the young man with an expression as pale as the vermin in his hands. "I don't suppose the fearless apprentice, Kazon Locke, would have any objections to such a..." he paused mockingly as he wiped away a bit of the goo that had dripped from the carcass onto his lap with a gulp, "….'delicacy'."

Kazon Locke, the Hunter's apprentice stared silently at his mentor for a moment before slowly training his eyes back to the campfire.

"Yeah, I figured as much," the older man sighed, crestfallen. "Lighten up though, will ya'? I know you think it's dumb that we are here, but we need the Kem," he shook his head slightly. "We can't afford to take any more useless jobs."

"This _is_ a useless job, Ouspi," the young man finally spoke, his low voice disdainful and his tact uncomfortably abrupt.

Ouspi's old, tired steel-gray eyes stared back into Kazon's dark face as he lowered his ration down to his lap. His lips curled into a sly grin; the older man was used to the quips of his unsympathetic apprentice. "I guess that means you don't want your space bug then?" Ouspi held the insect back up as if he was presenting a showcase piece that rivaled the Myce Ruby and pointed the morbid face of the dead creature towards the young man's direction. "That's a shame. He sure does seem pretty hot that you keep flaking out on him, Kaz…"

"...stop calling me that," Kazon's eyes poured an icy glare back towards Ouspi's direction, the dark stare pierced through the haze of the campfire with contempt.

Ouspi dropped his charade with a soft chuckle as he twisted the bug back around to the side, pushing aside some of its many floppy legs to get a better hold on it. "I don't blame you, Kaz'. This looks worse than my cooking."

Kazon had continued to watch his instructor from the other side of the campfire, slightly annoyed by Ouspi's blatant disregard. He also hated being called 'kid' or 'boy' too, but was sure any further objections he could make would have simply made it worse. He watched as Ouspi slowly attacked the side of the pale insect's sticky body. The aging Hunter sunk his teeth down on the very center of the creature, biting it into two separate halves.

Ouspi leaned back against the tree with a mouthful and a moan. He tried his best to not think as much about it as he did just to chew, but all the mind that he could muster over the matter still was not enough to conceal the horrid expression that flushed over his scruffy face. He turned more pale with each gnash of the bitter, disgusting "meat" as Ouspi attempted to chew on the mushy insect hide for a few moments before he finally relented defeat. Ouspi leaned forward and quickly spat out the nasty wad of 'food' from his mouth and arced the gelatinous clump into the camp fire. As the flames fanned around the object, Kazon's face scowled slightly at the sight, his wry expression peering through the newly kicked up embers.

Ouspi coughed a bit and rubbed his tongue with his gloved had in an attempt to get the foul taste from his mouth. He tossed a joking grin across the campfire over to his apprentice "Blech..." he coughed again, "It sucks you didn't find any water holes around here..."

Kazon stared at Ouspi for a moment. Weary of his instructor's side show antics, he lowered his gaze back to the fire.

Ouspi slouched against the trunk of the tree, disappointed at his attempts to get a rise out of his apprentice but still humored himself nonetheless. "Yanno', I've known you for five years now," Ouspi said. "I think it's time you changed your tough guy act up a bit," Ouspi grinned as he shrugged nonchalantly. "You're never gonna' get a girlfriend, you know?" he added with a laugh.

Kazon said nothing, if only to bore holes through his mentor with those glowing green eyes of his.

Ouspi and Kazon had many one-sided conversations like this in the past. Countless times, each with the same result. Ouspi was always a bit of a prankster, and the life of the party among the Hunter's back home while Kazon's thoughts had always been reserved for himself. Ouspi could never recall a time when Kazon was very outspoken. That is, unless they found themselves on contracts that he felt were ridiculous, such as ones that randomly placed them in the midst of empty planets covered with dead dirt as far as the eye could see.

Even after taking him under his wing and teaching him his profession, Ouspi could remember all the times his apprentice had flashed his knack for making him uncomfortable, especially when he got nothing in return from Kazon. Yet over time, Ouspi had grown used to it and learned how to manage his dark apprentice's biting tone and aloof aura. He would even crack a joke or two about the young Hunters constant moodiness at his expense, despite the deaf ears they usually fell on…

"You're a bright kid, Kaz'," Ouspi said suddenly, a hint of quiet reflection in his voice. His words prompted the teen to cant his head ever so slightly to the side as to not let his partner notice he was surprised by the sudden complement. "Way smarter than I'll ever be. But you still don't know everything yet." Ouspi let out a long sigh, "I don't know how anyone could handle you sometimes."

"I don't need to be 'handled'," Kazon said coldly, his words snapped his instructor out of his daze. The idea wasn't something that Kazon felt was necessary. "You're in charge; there isn't any deep thought that goes into it," Kazon lowered his gaze from Ouspi's down to the flames. "I just do what I'm told to do…regardless of the circumstances."

Those last few words that escaped his defiant apprentice's lips were the one that caught Ouspi's attention the most. "The circumstances…?" he asked with an arched brow.

Kazon stared blankly into the fire for a moment, the silence lingered like a musty stench over the campsite far worse than anything the wind could have kicked up.

"All that matters to me is the job," Kazon finally explained, his dark eyes glanced upwards again, "...and I wouldn't have taken this one."

Ouspi simply shook his head. He took the two remaining pieces of his dinner and tossed them both into the fire one at a time. "I take what the Corporation is willing to-"

"What's so interesting to Tedan Tippedai about this place?" Kazon cut his partner off quickly and callously at the mention of their client. "We're Hunters. Surveys should be left to science teams..."

"_You_," Ouspi interjected with a sharp authority, "are an apprentice. I took the job," he added as he pointed a gloved finger at himself. "And just like you said, you are going to do what you're told." Ouspi nodded with firmness. "_Trust the job_, Kaz'. If I've tried to teach you anything, it's patience…."

Kazon turned his face away from Ouspi's glare altogether with an ounce of defiance. "_Whatever_..." he scoffed under his breath.

Ouspi shrugged his shoulders as he rested his hands behind his head, locking his fingers together like a makeshift pillow. "It's not like I have an answer for you anyway. I don't trust Tedan Tippedai any more than any one else..."

He looked off into the darkness beyond their campsite, peering into the black and misty void. "Maybe they thought there was something dangerous out here…?" he added with a shrug of his shoulders. "But we've been out here for hours and haven't so much as seen a fly. So that's not the case." Ouspi settled back in against the tree trunk and closed his eyes with a coy grin. "And if that's the deal, it's easy money I'd say. So you might as well enjoy the sights."

Another silence fell over the campsite, the intermission only broken by the ambient sound of popping embers within the burning pile of wood and the occasional wisp of the loathsome wind that rustled the limbs of the two mangled trees together. The two men sat motionless where they were as the respite wore on, the flimsy material of the tents billowed and flapped in the soft, whistling breeze. Each passing second that prolonged the lull between them seemed to drag on longer than the last and widened the gap that grew between the two Hunters….

"...If we had brought the Borobdin," Kazon finally broke the stillness, "I could have actually gotten some work in."

"What?!" Ouspi's eyes shot open with surprise as quickly as the words could escape Kazon's lips. If he had acted any more dumbfounded, he would have jumped into the fire by accident. "The Borobdin thing?! Again!?" Ouspi leaned forward and pointed an accusatory finger at his apprentice. "Kid, this is what I'm talking about! You don't bring Borobdin's on a mission like this! Administration would have our heads!"

Kazon finally let an arm unfold from his chest and motioned to the darkness that surrounded them and their little camp. "I really don't think anyone would notice," he added with that trademark, sardonic resentment to his tone.

"It's against the regs!" Ouspi fired back. "The last thing I need is that bald-headed, pony-tailed bastard barking up my tree again," Ouspi shook his head at the thought. "Besides, you're just an apprentice. You're-"

"...not ready?" Kazon interrupted and finished Ouspi's sentence for him; his words oozed with scorn. His green eyes took on that characteristic frigid glare that Ouspi had grown to hate from his apprentice, the one he found could burn through him faster than if he had willingly stuck his own hand in the campfire.

"Don't try to make another case on this one," Ouspi relented and attempted to end the conversation at that, though he knew it would just fuel Kazon. "Give it some time."

"You don't even use it.…" Kazon spat back at his trainer.

"I have no _need_ to use it," Ouspi dismissed. "Blades are always more versatile for any job than some bulky, nuclear cannon. Besides you're too young to use one anyway."

Kazon's eyes narrowed slightly, unnoticeable to Ouspi from across the campsite. "Gren is barely older than I am."

"He's licensed..." Ouspi said, leaning back against the trunk of his tree once more.

"Yeah. Today," Kazon corrected him sharply.

"He was due," Ouspi quipped. "We both know that."

You let him borrow yours two weeks ago," Kazon promptly fired back, the level of his voice escalating.

"I owed him a favor," Ouspi returned and matched Kazon's volley.

"You owe _me_," Kazon shouted in a stern, loud timbre.

"I'm blacklisted!" Ouspi roared in retort, his frustration with his apprentice had finally boiled over to the point that it got the best of him. He pushed himself up from the ground with a hollow grunt, towering over the campfire with his arms stretched out to emphasize his words. "What am I supposed to do, huh?"

Kazon gave his mentor a hushed stare up through the mirage of heat from the flames.

Ouspi took one of his gloved hands to his neck and tugged the long cord that hung from it. He pointed at the black pendant that dangled from it's clasp. "You don't think I know that this hurts you too? You're paying for my screw-ups and I let you do it every day. Tell me how I'm not supposed to notice that?!" Ouspi's voice uncharacteristically reached a level it normally never exceeded. He let his license pendent fall back down around his neck. Disgusted more with himself than anything his apprentice could throw at him, the aging Hunter straightened his coat and turned from Kazon's icy gaze. He propped himself up against the contorted body of the tree next to his tent.

"The only thing I have left to fight for was you qualifying for early licensing," Ouspi conceded solemnly. "And what is that from now? A week? Two weeks? You think I wanna' let you screw that up?" Ouspi paused and took in a deep breath. "Or let me screw it up for you? Administration and Ghomvak be damned; they see what I see in you. They just don't believe in me."

Kazon's brow furrowed slightly away from the sight of his partner. He began to open his mouth as if to say something in response, but no words would come.

Ouspi shrugged his shoulders with a narrowed brow. "I know I owe you, and that's the problem. I probably owe you for more than you know. Taking you in wasn't a favor for either of us," Ouspi reflected with a sadness in his voice. "But I owe you for being the one that's holding you back."

The old Hunter tried to stem his frustration and forcibly snatched a dry, dead twig from the tree's dilapidated husk. "'Kaz' is as good as Gren', I told them," he added with a false positive tone. "Hell, I told them you were better. And that's the only thing I've said in over 20 years that they actually _somewhat_ believe. Not because it came from me; because they know how good you really are." Ouspi played about with the small stick in his hands before he snapped it in half and tossed the broken pieces over his shoulder and into the fire. He then quickly bent over with another low groan from his weary body as his mind instinctively searched for something to do. Any sort of activity to fill the void between the one-sided conversation to cover his emotions. He grasped the two, curved blades he drug from his tent earlier and planted them firmly in the dirt at the base of his tree. Ouspi knocked the scabbards into an "X" formation up the length of the trunk, fumbling with them a bit as to make sure they wouldn't topple over.

Kazon's attention fell to the two swords as Ouspi pulled a small card from the breast of his coat and sat it at the base of the tree between the two sheathed blades, a small red globe protruding upward from one corner. With a quick press of a button on the mechanism, several clear, glass like shapes one by one formed a transparent polyhedron around the base of the tree at the stump and encapsulated the swords within. Once the formation had finished, the top of the tree began to teeter as the newly formed shield had sawed it off at the base..

"I'm not saying this to change whatever it is that's in you're head that makes you… 'you'," Ouspi said as he gave the top of the dead tree a nudge away from the direction of the camp; a strong, firm push that sent the mass of splintered branches tumbling to the earth below with a thud. Through the small plumes of dust the dead wood kicked up from the ground, he slowly turned and made his way over to his tent while an instinctive gloved finger wiped at the ridge of his nose. "But don't act like I don't know what I owe you…"

Kazon sat silently, his eyes fixed on the shield around the stump of the tree, uninfluenced by the impact of the fallen timber. Ouspi ducked down to reopen the porthole of his tent as a stiff breeze blew at the billowing tail of his long coat. He stopped himself, and reached into the tent first to take a small satchel he had stowed away in one of the corners. He backed out of the entrance once again and tossed the sack at the feet of his young apprentice.

"Wind is picking up again…" Ouspi noted blankly and bereft of any previous displayed emotion. "You didn't find any water, but that mud hole you scouted a half-klick to the south might be the only shot Tedan Tippedai has on this trip," Ouspi said softly and dejectedly as he pulled a small, dark cylindrical object from one of his front pockets. "Get it done and get some sleep. We're cuttin' this one short. 'Back to Myce in the morning..."

Ouspi's words were hollow as he retired to the inside of his tent. He fumbled with the hatch as he fastened it closed behind him. Kazon could not even look at his mentor as he retreated. He merely listened to his partner's frustrated tone with the same stone-cold expression that typically adorned his visage. He gazed intently at the pair of swords now hidden behind the protective shield… as if anything could get to them on this planet in the first place. He took in the curvature of the two blades encased in there white lacquered sheathes, obviously worn from their extensive use over the years. The dark apprentice's eyes poured over the ornate, yet small, oval shaped design engraved onto the hilt of the weapons. A round figure that Kazon always thought resembled some sort of pill bug, even as far as Ouspi referring to it as his "little pest".

Kazon let his arms fall to his sides as he carefully pushed himself up from the ground beneath with little wasted motion, much unlike his less graceful mentor. He glanced over to Ouspi's tent as he brushed the stray clumps of caked dirt that had managed to sneak its way between the plates of his alloy armor. He could make out a soft light repeatedly flickering on and off from within the tent, the silhouette of Ouspi attempting to light his usual late-night cigar that he pulled from his coat, a vice of his teacher that Kazon had always detested. He scoffed as he bent over to retrieve the small cloth bag at his feet. Kazon proceeded over to his own shelter to grab a slimline pair of viewing goggles and a thick belt that holstered a personal sidearm that each hung at the apex of the wooden frame. As he negotiated the path back around the camp fire and near Ouspi's tent, he gave his partner's dwelling a tap with his gloved hand as he passed by.

"…don't smoke that whole thing in one night," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. He tugged and adjusted the goggles over his thick head of hair as he made south from the camp fire's glow and gradually disappeared into the dark.


	4. Chapter Notes

**Chapter Notes**

**_Chapter One: Allegro_**

Chapter One differs from the context heavy Prologue in that it's much less of a character study of the new faces and rather a drop straight into the action; much like the original OVA did in 1994. Even for those of us that had seen the live action Zeiram film that predated the OVA, one of the best parts of the original anime was how it simply dropped you into the world of Myce with hardly any context and took you along for the ride. That's what a feeling I attempted to echo with this chapter, as the exposition is sure to follow once we open the story up going forward.

This chapter is obviously told from Iria's perspective. One of the things that I hated after reading back TSoS was how awful I made Iria appear to be at her job. Not just that she wasn't good at it, but borderline incompetent. So it goes when a dumb kid tries to make up his own character in a preexisting story. I realize now that I was so laser-focused on trying my best to make Kazon so damn cool, that Iria was effectively lost in the shuffle and misrepresented altogether. So that was my number one goal when I began to reform the story as Silent Sonata: I wanted to make Iria formidable and powerful again. This is the Hunter that defeated Zeiram and overcame so much emotional strife along the way after all.

That being said, there is a difference between being incompetent and being _complacent,_ and that's where I feel _this _Iria should be with such a long lull and after such a troubling time… and that is also where her growth should blossom from. As the chapter alludes, fighting Zeiramoids is routine now. It's not the same as it used to be after going through what she went through post-Karma. Even Bob has trouble corralling the attention of a young Hunter's who's skills are gradually beginning to overshadow the jobs she takes. In a way, "like brother, like sister."

...which makes the spat between her and that of the 'helmeted man' (tongue and cheek) near the end of the chapter much more jarring. The three of you that might remember from my original story, none of that stuff happened. He came, he saw, he kicked some guys and got in the flying thing and left. While I want to show a new maturation in Iria, as I mildly explored in the prologue: I set out to change him just as much. His complete lack of personality and one-note dialogue in TSoS I feel only extrapolated the problems I had in misrepresenting Iria. While he shouldn't be made to be the main character (which I tried so hard to mess up the first go around) his story is definitively the catalyst of the events that will transpire as we go. However, the point isn't to make sure that story overshadows the titular character, but rather be fuel that helps her mature even farther into something that we haven't seen before. That is the arc of this chapter after all: we can see a complacent Iria just doing her job, to a flash of uncertainty, to resurfacing to that gritty determination she hadn't felt since the final battle with OG Zeiram. My favorite change from this chapter from the original TSoS is that where I originally had 'helmet man' shoot the monster behind a whining, pleading and oblivious Iria; now they are equals. The difference is how they handle their own differences, and the new, tense back and forth scene at the he end is just a taste to come.

As well, in turn there is a juxtaposition in how the OVA began and how Silent Sonata to illustrate that growth. A rookie Iria let Fujikuro steal her bounty and blow green shit all over her face. This is not the same Iria. This Iria has been though too much not to stand up fight back. And, if I pull my weight and finish writing this, it's only going to get cooler from here.

The other big change is Bob's reaction to his realization towards the end. The biggest plothole I originally found myself in is why didn't Bob know of Helmet guy, especially after the events of The Rogue, my TSoS sidestory. This is a new path that I'm planning on exploring that should open the story up in a completely different angle than how it was originally portrayed.

Going forward, my notes will not be this long winded as the story should begin to speak for itself as we go.


End file.
